jh2fct’s posterous

Short Answer: It is the age old philosophical problem of proving the existence of other minds.

The main thesis of this argument  Summa Theologica the Third Article of the Second Question in the First Part of the First Part. Note: St Thomas Aquinas is not attempting to define a Christian God that this point in the Summa. Neither is he suggesting that the God of the Second Question is much more than a god that wound up the clock of the universe and left it to run.

Posit 1: The operating definition of God in its very least is another entity. In the very least it is a different entity as different as you the reader are different from I the writer.

Posit 2: The operating definition of Science is the general analytical study of processes.

Posit 3:  Godels mathematical proof for the existence of God

Reciently I have been getting back into my favorite miniatures wargame Battletech. It has been 10 years since I last played the game but I have fond memories of the game. It is better for me than going to a bar with some budies. In an effort to give back to the Battletech community I have begun editing the battletech wiki at sarna.net. Here is my first entry: http://sarna.net/wiki/Sniper_Artillery_Piece It is pretty lame at this point but it is more difficult to find information about this piece than I first thought. I think I'll have better success when I write about the Long Tom mobile artillery vehicle as it has a full entry in the 3025 Technical Read Out. I am thinking about starting a new battletech blog. I'll start here and see what happens.

I have an undergraduate degree in Philosophy of Religion with a minor in Mathematics. Interesting combination don't you think. That is what happens when you take what you like until your senior year and then decide to major in it. But that is a different story...

It has ruined my life.

I cannot go to church and listen to the sermon in blissful ignorance of the biblical history, studies, interpretation of the biblical Greek and Hebrew that flood my mind with each reference he makes. I cannot attend without pencil and paper diagramming, dissecting and earmarking sections for follow-up study. I can not just sit and listen. I have to learn. I cannot keep myself from it. I have tried only to find my hand itching for pen and paper.

I cannot watch a movie and be simply entertained. I catch all of the literary references. I catch all of the tiny messages. I catch all of the innuendo that goes into every line. I hear the references to the literary, historical, theological and philosophical greats. Again I suffer to learn. During the newest Star Trek movie I found myself itching for pen and paper. I wanted to jot down things they said and earmark them for follow up study. I could not just listen, watch and be entertained. I could not keep myself from it.

I see things differently. I embrace change. I find interest in learning what I do not know. I find value in conversation with those who believe differently than I. Not that I might convert them but rather that I may learn more about my own beliefs.

My study drives me to excel. It will not let me wallow in mediocrity. I cannot satisfy myself without the challenge of learning, researching and reflection.

Ah it is reflection that gets me the most.

I am driven by 4 questions:

Who are you? What do you want? Why are you here? What difference does it make?

They leave me unsatisfied with myself. They will not let me rest. They haunt all I do or see.

I cannot escape them. I have no peace.

Perhaps if I did not have my degree. Then I could rest.

Yesterday (April 19th) we bought Howard (our duck) a wading pool. We filled it with water and we put Howard in it. He bathed, cleaned himself up for about 10 minutes, and go out.

He hasn't been back in it since.

We have Howard on our lower deck. He has his house which is a pet carrier, his food and water bowels, and now a wading pool for his own use. He has the Presidential Suite so to speak. We like to let him out about the yard occasionally. Just so he can remember what it is like. If he had his druthers he would rather be in the house.

About a week ago we let the dogs out and forgot that we let Howard out earlier. Howard got "wooled around" by our Cocker Spaniel, Two Mini-Schnauzers and a Schnoodle. I guess that is what you get when you try to eat out of a dog food bowl when the dog is eating first.He is ok but now he won't come off the deck. I guess you can train a duck. Now when we pick him up and put him in the yard he runs to the sliding glass door to get in the house. We'll see if he uses his wading pool in the future. But I have my doubts.

Stay tuned...

I recently started working on a project that qualifies as both a paper (to be published) and a grant proposal. This paper relies heavily on the article “Network Security: Submarine Warfare” by Dan Houser written in 2003. The link for the article was published in InformationSecurity Magazine is no longer valid "http://www.techtarget.com/ss/0,295796,sid6_iss21_art86,00.html" I can't even find a cached copy. So much for stuff on the internet being there forever.

I have a colleague on Linkedin who is linked to a colleague that is linked to Mr. Dan Houser. Mr Houser replied with a linked in email two days or closer to 36 hours after I requested my colleague to make contact with him.

I actually got a email from THE Dan Houser who wrote THE article within 36 hours. I am so excited that LinkedIn worked so quickly that haven't written him a reply. I am going to do that now.

If that is not a vindication of the power of social networking then I don't know what is.

Asked to unsubscribe from this one...

The latest update to my Twitter Character Sheet:

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Name: James Herbert     Class: Instructor Subclass: College

Bio: I am an instructor at Fountainhead College of technology.
I am researching web 2.0 tools and how they can be incorporated
into the classroom.

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Be sure to check out My Twitter Groups, My TweetStats Graphs, My TweetCloud and My Tweetree

Keeping up with this stuff has consequences. See my previous post.

I am trying some services for lifestreaming and here is a short list of good and bad I have found with each.

Profilactic: http://profilactic.com/mashup/james

I have put nearly every Social Networking site I belong to on this service. As a result it takes forever to bring up the stream.

Good: Not on my computer. Simple to use. Has all of my services.

Bad: Takes a while to load.

Chi.mp http://jh2fct.mp

I have reduced the number of services that I use on Chi.mp so it isn't a fair comparison. Further I have put some of the services I use on Friendfeed that I import to Chi.mp.

Good: Not on my computer. Simple to use.

Bad: Adding additional sites needs rss feeds to use. Friendfeed and Profilactic. Seems to take some time to update and you have to click the view all link to see the latest stuff. To be fair the update time might be because it is pulling from friendfeed that pulls from twitter and other servies I use.

Sweetcron http://jh2fct.com

Sweetcron is pretty. I mean really nice. It is extreamly customizeable and I can add all the funky widgets I like. But it has to be hosted somewhere which is on my server. The biggie is that you have to know CSS and I mean really know CSS. It works almost entirely off rss feeds.

Good: Extremely Customizeable. Reall nice interface.

Bad: Lives and dies by CSS which makes it very difficult to use in comparison to the other services. Uses amost entirely RSS feeds.

The thing is that I really like Sweetcron and it makes me think it is worth figuring out the CSS. It is almost worth trying to host off of my server on some other hosting site. I'll have to get it working right before I go there though.

Have you tried these services? Please let me know what you think?